[Surfnetkids: 10 Mar 2010] Ireland

I became completely apoplectic yesterday when I stumbled upon a public Facebook page (in Google) with the phone numbers of 70 teens in my town. I won’t tell you what I was searching for, because I don’t want this page to get any additional attention, but the story goes like this.

One teen puts up a Facebook and says something to the effect of “Gee .. I lost my cell phone. What’s your number?” (No, that’s not what they really said in this particular case.) And 70 teens (I knew 4 of them) posted their phone numbers on the public wall of this Facebook group.

The island of Ireland is the third largest island in Europe. Politically, it consists of the independent Republic of Ireland (covering five-sixths of the island) and Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom. Because of the popularity of St. Patrick’s Day (when everyone can enjoy being Irish) March was designated as Irish-American Heritage Month by Congress in 1995.

Around Ireland Around Ireland is a mobile documentation project, meaning it is an archive of geo-tagged photos and videos created as a student project for Trinity College in Dublin. “We have traveled the 32 counties of Ireland, gathering video and images on mobile phones over the course of the Summer of 2006. The mobile content is sent directly to our site, AroundIreland.net from camera-equipped mobile phones in real time.” The archive can be browsed chronologically or by county.

Five-Minute Irish Tales Five-Minute Tales is a collection of 151 short Irish folk tales, some dating back to the twelfth century. The Webmaster says he purposely did not categorize the stories, so that browsing may afford the reader a sense of the variety that exists in the Irish and Celtic story-telling tradition. “Take a moment to raise up these stories from the printed page and place them back into our culture where they might take on real life.” I recommend starting with “The Man who had No Story.”

Irelandseye.com Irelandseye.com calls itself “a weekly webzine on Ireland and Irish culture, history, tradition, myth and more.” They have a great collection of features on Irish fairies, the Blarney Stone, the Titanic, and an entire section about Irish ghosts. Other great clicks are Music (which includes songs and Irish dance) and History (divided into People, Places and Events). “From before the arrival of Saint Patrick to the present day Ireland has had a history that could never be called quiet.”

Surfnetkids Printables Club Members also get the following printables to use in the classroom, the computer lab, the school library, or to send home with students: Ireland Printable Ireland Wikipedia Printable St. Patrick’s Day Printable St. Patrick’s Day Clipart Printable *** Are you curious? Get your own ten-day trial membership:http://www.surfnetkids.com/printables-club.htm